


A Touch of Magic

by SamJoinedtheReconCorps



Series: A Flame in the Shadows [12]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: (............nothing.....), M/M, Touching, because they're fucking NERDS, dunamancy lesson, post ep 77, spellwork as flirting, spoilers for ep 97, what's sexier than wizards NOTHING
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-11
Updated: 2020-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:35:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23108599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SamJoinedtheReconCorps/pseuds/SamJoinedtheReconCorps
Summary: After what happened in the Dungeon of Penance, Essek teaches Caleb new spells.
Relationships: Essek Thelyss/Caleb Widogast
Series: A Flame in the Shadows [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1648909
Comments: 30
Kudos: 160





	A Touch of Magic

**Author's Note:**

> alrighty, here's the next part of the series!!! This was going to be a part of the previous fic but idk I felt like it would have been a little too much and it would have detracted from the intense Scourger scene. And honestly, I had to split this piece AGAIN, but just a little bit at the end that'll be the start of the next one, so fear not for you shall read that soon as well!!
> 
> this fic was lots of fun to write, and like, it had some interesting inflections that I didn't realize until afterwards, if you guys get what i mean ;))
> 
> anyway, I really hope you guys like it!!

The walk back to the Xhorhaus is quiet - at least for him. His head feels fuzzy and he’s a little dazed, but he figures that’s just from all the blood loss. Beau and Fjord talk in hushed voices above his head, plans and ideas that Caleb can’t bring himself to focus on. He feels weak and small and like such a disaster, but none of them are treating him like that - they’re worried, and careful, and gentle, and it helps ease the ugly, painful thorns that wrap around his heart.

Essek is still with them when they step into the Xhorhaus, his sharp eyes and the cold set of his mouth softening with a questioning look when he reaches the door, but Caduceus waves him inside as well.

Fjord guides him to the couch, allowing Caleb to sit and rest his weary muscles. He knows that after a good night’s sleep he’ll be fine - he’ll be fine.

He turns to Essek. “So is it - is it, ah, on us? There are no resources of any kind that you could provide in, in our foray back to the Empire?”

“What kind of resources would you require?” Essek asks, getting closer. “Everything is being placed into the war effort for right now, so it is a bit stretched.”

“Information,” Caleb clarifies. “Do you know the last place this beacon was seen?”

“The last place that we know of it was in Felderwin,” Essek answers.

“Felderwin,” both Caleb and Fjord repeat under their breath, with Caleb stealing a quick glance at Nott as Fjord adds, “You don’t happen to have any safe houses or, um, bases of operation behind enemy lines?”

“We have a few locations that we’ve established,” Essek admits, but gives him an apologetic half smile. It doesn’t reach his eyes. “But, for the purposes of keeping them safe, respectfully, I cannot tell you.”

They follow the Felderwin thread, wondering how they could potentially trace the beacon from there, even wondering if Yussa or the Gentleman might have any information about rumors on it's whereabouts, Yussa being brought up by Beau because of his position as a rather high-powered yet neutral arcanist and the Gentleman being brought up by Jester because of his status as a crime lord - and because he’s her dad. There’s mention of the Jagentoths, a name that keeps coming up, a family that finances smuggling rings and slavers - like the Iron Shepherds that had taken his friends and killed Mollymauk all those months ago. It is a dark thought to follow in light of everything Caleb has just gone through, and so he’s relieved when Beau bumps her shoulder to his.

“Can you like, sense dunamagic, now that you have tapped into that?” she asks.

“That’s what you call it, right, Essek?” Caleb smiles, shaking his head. “Sensing dunamagic?”

“Yeah, dunamagic,” Beau nods. “Can you do that?”

“It is referred to as dunamancy,” Essek corrects easily.

Beau nods again. “Yeah, dunamagic.”

“Oh, boy,” Caleb sighs, but he sees that Essek is smiling, some of the tension easing from his face.

“I’m just shortening it,” she explains with a shrug.

“We’re trying to stay in his good graces,” Caleb reminds her quietly, but he’s still watching Essek’s slow smile.

“He just turned someone into a pretzel with the dunamagic,” Fjord tells her, giving her a stern look. “Tone it down.”

“It's fine,” Essek assures, his eyes on Beau. “It is difficult for many to grasp it's, ah, elaborate and esoteric depths.”

“I’m making a pun you don’t have to be patronizing,” Beau huffs out.

“But I always do,” Essek grins, and it feels easy, like he’s been doing this with them for ages - which is new since Essek is never like this, teasing and playful.

“That’s true,” Beau sighs as Fjord stifles a laugh.

“Puns by their very nature are,” Caduceus comments, although his mind is clearly elsewhere. “I could meditate on the - upon the piece, if I had - I would need incense and some ivory, but I could, I could, ah, maybe glean some information that we didn’t have.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Fjord says, nodding along. “I - I actually like Jester’s idea of the Gentleman. He is very well connected and if they’re trying to move, albeit discreetly through the Empire.”

“And while I think that, ah, my good friend Beauregard was being somewhat facetious, it’s not a bad point either,” Caleb starts, his attention on Essek as he brings himself to stand again. He’s nervous and worried - the Bright Queen had shut him down when he’d asked for further lessons, and he hadn’t even planned on asking, but the blood loss coupled with the dangers that lie ahead, well - the worse he could say is no, right? “If there is any other, um, arcane tricks of your kind that you think could help us in our search - know that I,” he drops his gaze as he feels a tightness in his throat. He swallows hard, meeting Essek’s gaze again, watching the careful way that he’s taking him in, eyes searching his face for what, Caleb doesn’t know.

“I love my home,” Caleb admits. “My home is out of control. I want to end the conflict, I know many here think that that is insanity. I do not.” He must look a mess, blood staining his front and voice raw from his still tender throat and from the emotion rising from his chest. “And everything that I am learning here I mean for the good of both our people.”

Jester gives him a light touch on the arm - both a steadying touch and one that he can feel laces his sentiments with magic as her  _ guidance _ soothes over his nerves like a balm.

Essek gives him one last searching look before he says, “Gather your books.”

Caleb half turns before he realizes he can feel their heavy weight in their holsters. He lifts his arm up, showing the corner of them where they are beneath his coat. “They are on me at all times.”

“Good,” Essek smiles. “Then to the den.”

* * *

“All of us?” Veth asks, looking from him to Caleb.

Essek shrugs. “If you wish to watch, but I gather this might be a bit above your respective levels of understanding.”

“I have some shopping to do, personally,” Caduceus says, no interest in his voice to come watch their lesson.

Jester crosses her arms, eyes narrowed. “Well, now I feel like he’s just -”

“Now he’s laying it on thick,” Beauregard finished for her, giving Essek a rather impressive side eye.

“Yeah,” Jester agreed.

“I’m just being honest,” Essek smiles, and he finds that he rather likes the teasing. He may need to learn how to best do it to not come off as rude, but he thinks that they’re fine with him despite the way they look at his smug smile.

“No, we could gather some things while they’re doing this,” Fjord nods, motioning for Caduceus.

Beauregard goes to stand next to him instead. “Yeah, we’ll prep - we’ve got our own notes and books we have to hit.”

Fjord rolls his eyes. “No, you don’t,” he says at the same time that Essek gives a bright, “Perfect.”

“Yes, I do - yes, I do!” Beauregard insists, shooting Fjord a withering look even as it makes Essek laugh. “As I punch your book in the fucking face, shut up,” she grumbles.

“We could go get some ivory for you, I guess, for you, Caducy,” Veth suggests.

“A little ivory and a little incense would go a long way,” Caduceus nods.

Jester gives Essek and Caleb one more look before she marches off towards the kitchen as Beauregard, Veth, Caduceus, and Fjord all file out, presumably to buy materials for their coming journeys. They watch them go, and the silence that settles around the both of them feels excited - anticipating what comes next.

“Were you referring to your den or ours?” Caleb asks, breaking the silence.

“Yours,” Essek answers quickly. He’s not sure he’s ready for that step yet, to bring Caleb to his own home.

“Ah, okay,” Caleb nods, eyes curious. He motions towards the labrary, and Essek follows, watching Caleb give him a small bow and step into his room - probably to change out of the bloodstained clothes. It takes him a few minutes to come out, and when he does he looks much better in a fresh lavender shirt who’s sleeves are rolled up to his elbows and a silver scarf wrapped loosely around his neck. It’s such a  _ Caleb _ ensemble and it makes Essek want to reach out and pull him into his arms, to promise that he’ll never let him be hurt like that again.

But he can’t, and so they retake their chairs with a familiarity that hints at having done this hundreds of times when in reality they’ve only done this once before.

“What,” Essek starts, because he likes this, he likes to give Caleb options. Likes to give Caleb choices. “What is it you wish to do?” He’s turned towards Caleb, one hand resting on the desk while his other is on his knee, a thrum of energy wanting him to reach over and take Caleb’s hand in his own. He fights the urge, watching Caleb’s face. “Do you wish utility in the manipulation of the world around you?”

“Always,” Caleb smiles, slow and secret, as if just for him.

“Okay,” Essek nods, already going through his mental list of spells and narrowing it down. He has an idea of what to teach him - something for creative uses and something strong and useful, something to give him someone else to watch his back. Caleb could have  _ died _ he reminds himself, his chest pounding off beat with fear at the notion. And now - now that he’s tasked the Mighty Nein with retrieving the beacon, now that he’s tasked them with fixing part of the mess he got them in when he gave those beacons away - he has to do something to help him. He may not be able to retract his request, but he can make sure they have another weapon in their arsenal that may come in handy in their coming travels.

“Perhaps - do you enjoy the idea of drawing the potential from discarded timelines?” Essek smiles to cover his guilt and worry, but when he sees the way Caleb’s eyes shine his smile softens, turning into something genuine and warm and he knows that the smile he’s giving Caleb may betray more than he wishes, but he finds that he could care less about that at the moment.

“That is intriguing,” Caleb answers, leaning closer to Essek. “How do you mean?”

“Let me show you,” Essek rushes out, as he lifts his hand and draws his spellbook from his pocket dimension, allowing it's familiar weight to settle in his palm.

And that’s the exact moment that Jester marches into the study, a large bowl of popcorn in her hands. She hops onto the laboratory worktable, digging in as she watches, and when Caleb makes no movement to comment or even look at her, Essek decides to leave her be as well. He did say she could watch, after all.

He finds the page for  _ Immovable Object _ , a utility spell that can have a wide variety of creative uses - uses which he’s sure Caleb will figure out. “There are ways which you can manipulate the gravity around specific objects to, ah, become a fixed point in space. Like for instance -” He pulls out his component pouch for the spell, letting a bit of gold dust fall into his hand. Getting up, he grabs the other chair that’s by the worktable - one that Jester had ignored in favor of sitting on the table itself - and, sprinkling it with gold dust, lifts it up. He uses some gravitational dunamancy to help, but they don’t need to know that.

With his free hand he goes through the somatic elements, creating the dunamantic glyph in the air that begins to draw in some of the gold dust before it vanishes in a puff. Essek lets go of the chair, and it remains completely fixed in space.

Jester gasps, then quickly begins clapping at the display.

Caleb gets up from his seat, slowly moving over to stand in front of Essek. He looks away from Essek as he reaches out for the chair, tugging on it a bit. Much to Essek’s satisfaction, it doesn’t budge at all.

“That is useful,” Caleb says, his finger lightly running down the chair leg.

There’s a muffled laugh coming from Jester who hides it by shoveling more popcorn into her mouth.

“Yes, I know,” Caleb nods, reading into her reaction something that Essek can’t see. He wonders if he’ll ever get that in tune with someone - reading even their most nonsense noises as what they’re truly meant to be. “That is useful,” Caleb breathes, still looking at the chair in awe.

“It’s a meager trick but it has many, ah, creative applications,” Essek smiles, and Caleb drops his eyes to him, that awe still present even as his fingers continue to run along the wood. It sends a chill down Essek’s spine.

“Does it - can you do it to people?” Jester asks.

“No,” Essek shakes his head. The closest would be a  _ hold person _ spell, which he’s sure they know about. “To non-magical objects of a smaller size, but, ah,” he gestures to the chair, knowing that despite her adorable looks Jester is probably stronger than both Caleb and him combined. “I mean, give it a tug. You’re pretty strong - see if you can move it.”

Caleb raises a brow at her. “Yes, Jester, give it a tug.”

Hopping off the table, Jester puts a hand to her chest, as if giving a short prayer, then she jumps, grabbing onto the chair and yanking down with all her might. It doesn’t move, leaving her dangling from where she’s holding it. She pulls again, and ends up doing a pull up instead. “This is really awesome!” she says, letting herself drop to the floor.

“Can you climb up and sit on it?” Caleb suggests, amusement in his eyes.

“Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,” she grins, grabbing the chair again and quickly climbing onto it. It’s at a bit of an angle since Essek hadn’t lifted it completely upright, but she manages to perch herself on it nonetheless, holding onto the back of the chair to keep from falling off.

“Is that comfortable?” Caleb smiles.

“I mean, it’s pretty cool,” Jester answers. She slips a little, but quickly wraps her tail around the back of the chair too. “It’s worth it!”

“It lasts for about an hour,” Essek laughs, drifting closer to Caleb. “Or until you wish it to stop,” he finishes, snapping his fingers.

Jester tumbles to the ground with the chair in a heap of tiefling and wood and the bright fabrics of her dress. “Worth it,” she groans out.

“So, hopefully this  _ immovable object  _ spell will be, ah, useful to you,” he tells Caleb.

Caleb gives him a long sideways glance, his smile still on his lips and laughter in his eyes. “I can come up with a few applications for it, yes.”

“Perfect,” Essek grins. He glances over to his spellbook, moving over to retake his seat. “Here is something a little more interesting.” He gives Caleb a careful look, one that he hopes he reads as a silent plea. “And I will request that you be careful when using this in any public space outside of Rosohna.”

“Understood,” Caleb nods.

“These are tricks that, um, are pretty well-guarded,” Essek tells him, steepling his fingers.

He gives Essek a long, searching look - and once again Essek feels like Caleb can see right through him. “Are you putting yourself at risk by sharing these with me?” he whispers.

Essek allows himself to take Caleb in, to see the worry and curiosity warring in his beautiful blue eyes. “Maybe,” he breathes. He swallows hard. “But let that be an extension of my trust in you and your friends.”

Chancing a glance at Jester he sees her now sitting on the chair, still watching them. She gives him a smile and a nod.

“I expect hopefully the same trust in return,” Essek finishes, turning to look back at Caleb.

“It is fairly established, I would like to think,” Caleb assures quietly.

“Good,” Essek nods.

“We are friends now,” Caleb says, slow and sure in his words.

There’s a warmth that spreads across Essek’s chest as soon as he hears Caleb’s words, a warmth that threatens to swallow him whole. He doesn’t fight it, letting it envelope him in it's softness. “I like that,” he admits. It's such a new feeling and he never wants to let it go. “Friends.” He can’t remember when he last had friends before.

Essek nods, trying to get back on track. “So, time. When you move through it, from moment to moment, you make choices. Each choice guides the next path of where this timeline will go.” Caleb is watching him attentively, and Essek is giddy and eager to show him this next spell. “But when you make that choice, so many potential timelines are left to decay - so much potential lost to redistribute into the universe.” He shrugs. “Why not put some of that unused potential to use?”

Taking out a small piece of obsidian, he carves into the air at his side, watching as a shadow follows his motion, cascading to the floor from the tear and solidifying in a familiar form, a mirror image of himself made of shadow.

Jester gasps again. “That’s like -” she cuts herself off, her mouth agape.

“These are referred to as echoes,” Essek tells him, gesturing to his echo who gives a small bow. “They are potential selves left to fade in unrealized timelines. Some elements of dunamancy have allowed us the ability to call them. After all, they are a piece of us.” He watches Caleb closely. “Why not make use of them before they are reabsorbed by time and space?” 

“That is fascinating,” Caleb breathes, turning from Essek to his echo and back. “I had some notion of this being in contact with your beacon.” He sounds almost reverent in his hushed whispers. “We had it for a while, and if you spent time with it you sensed that very possibility.”

“Some of our elite warriors known as Echo Knights specifically focus on this technique,” Essek explains. “But us as practitioners of, ah, arcane arts - it’s a little more specific.” He tilts his head towards his echo. “For you see this version here contains a facet of my magical capabilities.” He hears Jester gasp yet again, and Caleb’s eyes are so bright Essek wonders how it doesn’t hurt him to look at them. “It can cast one spell but when cast, it vanishes. And it can easily be destroyed as well. So, keep it safe.”

“An even weaker wizard than I am,” Caleb smiles.

Essek laughs, leaning ever closer to him. “Don’t tell it that.” He can see the freckles that dot Caleb’s cheeks like stars, can see Caleb’s bright blue eyes soften sweetly. Essek is gripped by the realization that all it would take is for him to just lean in a bit more, just to close the scant few inches that lie between them, and then he -

“But anyway,” Essek continues, straightening up. He turns in his chair, facing the desk and patting his spellbook. “Come, I’ll show you how to copy these down.”

There’s the loud sound of a chair scraping along the ground and suddenly Jester is sitting on Essek’s other side. “Can I practice them, too?” she asks.

“Sure,” Essek nods, even though he’s not entirely sure how successful she’ll be. He’ll at least humor her though. Just to see, he takes his book, showing Jester a page and pointing at some of the arcane notations and equations there. “Tell me, um, what of these particular glyphs can you ascertain connections?” Her brow furrows, her hand coming to her chest in that prayerful motion he saw earlier. He can see her tongue poking out of her mouth, betraying her concentration. “So, what do you see?”

“Um, I see,” she frowns, dropping her voice in worry, “great peril and, lots of time changing, and I see -” she points at one of the symbols that makes up the  _ Immovable Object _ spell. “Um, this little part kind of looks like a mouse and then, over here, that’s definitely -” her brow furrows again before she exclaims, “That’s a tree! That’s a tree ‘cuz you can see it’s got this line right here and then it's - it's -” she moves to trace the symbol in the air, but it does nothing aside from illustrate her idea of the tree and prove to Essek that she has no idea what she’s looking at.

He slowly pulls his spellbook away, giving her an apologetic smile. “We’ll keep this between learned individuals.”

“I’m learned in other ways,” Jester huffed.

“Of course you are,” Essek nodded, genuine and honest. “I do not question this.”

She glances from Essek to Caleb. “I could probably teach you some things, Essek.”

The look on her face makes him instantly nervous. “Uh, I -”

A knowing smile spreads across her face. “I bet I could.”

It's best to approach things warily when it comes to Jester. You just never know. “I’m certain you might, but I am not particularly interested in what you have to teach.”

Giving a small shrug, she says nothing more, but that hawkish look is still there, knowing and mischievous.

After that, the next few hours are filled with spellwork and practice. Essek allows Caleb to use the rest of his gold dust to work on  _ immovable object _ , first trying with a quill above the desk, then setting a glass vial to hang in the air, then a book. There were only a few mishaps with that spell, a few thuds that came from an improperly created glyph or an errant somatic gesture, but other than that that spell gave Caleb little trouble.

_ Resonant Echo _ though - now that was an interesting lesson.

They had been working on it for over an hour, both standing while Jester and his own echo sat, and the most Caleb had gotten was a few drops of shadowy ichor to spill from a small line in the air.

Essek watched him as he drew the obsidian through the air again, tapping a finger to his lips. He noticed the hesitance in Caleb’s movements, the way that halfway through the motion he seemed to second guess his work. “You need to commit to it,” Essek instructed. “You need to feel that tug in your chest as you draw from the discarded timelines and reel it in before they are scattered into the universe.”

Caleb dropped his arm, watching the errant drops of shadow fall to the ground before dissipating like smoke. “I just - I haven’t, ah, felt that tug you speak of.”

Nodding, Essek drifted closer to Caleb. “Committing to the movement is a way to draw it in. Think of the spell you wish to cast and then carve it out,  _ make _ it return to you.”

“Make it return to me,” Caleb repeats. He squares his shoulders, taking a deep breath, then tries again.

More drops.

“I don’t think Caleb saw the tree,” Jester commented, still eating from what was now her third batch of popcorn.

Giving him one last lingering look, Essek stepped close, taking Caleb’s hand in his own. “Let me - let me guide you through it.”

Caleb nodded but said nothing, standing still as Essek came to stand behind him. He put one hand on Caleb’s hip, while the other held his right hand, not threading their fingers together exactly but with a loose grip to show him the motions.

“You just have to,” Essek said, moving Caleb’s hand down before bringing it up in a diagonal arc. The slash in the air was longer this time, a darker black that spilled more shadowy ink. It loosely congealed before once again dissipating into whisps.

“See? Now we are getting closer,” Essek grinned, turning to look at Caleb - finding Caleb’s face only a hair's breadth away from his. Caleb’s bright eyes were on him, and Essek could have sworn he saw them flick down to his lips. “I think on your next try you will surely succeed,” Essek whispered.

“You think so?” Caleb breathed. When Essek gave him a tiny nod, Caleb quietly added, “Do you think you could show me again? Last time, ah - I don’t think I had a spell in mind. But I do this time.”

“If that is what you wish,” Essek said quietly. He felt Caleb’s free hand drop to the hand Essek had on his hip, slipping his fingers between his, and that’s when Essek realized he was pressed flush to the man - he was sure Caleb could feel his rapid heartbeat against his back. Essek leaned in, whispering into his ear, “Commit to it, feel it in your chest, and pull it until the potentiality spills out.”

Caleb nodded, this time moving his hand down with Essek following  _ his  _ movements. He moved their hands up in a smooth, confident stroke, leaving an inky slit in their wake where the shadow spilled to the floor, coating the ground before rising and solidifying into a shadowy mirror of Caleb - a successful Echo.

“We did it,” Caleb smiled, turning to look at Essek. Essek returned his smile, wanting to press his lips to the wizard’s temple. Then he heard Caleb’s voice in the back of his head, “ _ Thank you for trusting me, Essek _ .”

“And you, me,” Essek answered, glancing over to where Caleb’s Echo was. Sure enough, it was gone now. He turned his eyes back to Caleb - his very real, very solid, very warm Caleb. “I knew you would figure it out.”

“Oh my gosh, get a room!” Jester catcalled, throwing popcorn at them.

Essek stepped away from Caleb so quickly he felt himself knock the wind out of his lungs. Caleb seemingly did the same, because suddenly they were on opposite ends of the room.

“I honestly thought they were gonna kiss or something,” Jester stage whispered to Echo Essek, who, to Essek’s absolute mortification, nodded in agreement.

“Nevertheless,” Essek got out, ignoring Jester’s comments. “So,” he said, reaching behind him blindly and grabbing the familiar cover of his book, disappearing it into his pocket dimension. “I will bid you goodbye.” He needed to leave.  _ Now. _

Jester looked between the two of them, wiggling her eyebrows at Essek.

This was not how he expected this lesson to go  _ at all _ . Still, he reminded himself, he needed to end it professionally, on an academic, safe note. “But remember, be careful,” he told Caleb, looking over at him but letting his eyes rest on Caleb’s shoulder. He couldn’t bring himself to look him in the eye. “Echoes are definitely indicative of Dynasty abilities. It would be very easy for someone within the Empire to question your allegiance, should you be carrying one out in the open.”

“Why would they question my allegiance?” Caleb said with a quiet laugh. He ran a hand through his hair, and Essek was weak in trying to keep from tracking the movement, his eyes following the path of his hand as it carded through his red hair. Finally letting himself meet Caleb’s eyes, he noticed that there was a sweet blush crawling up his face, one that Essek could feel creeping up his own skin in shades of purple.

“With discretion, I understand perfectly,” Caleb nodded, meeting Essek’s eyes as well.

“Very well. Good luck.” Essek turned to his Echo, who stood from his place beside Jester.

He barely heard Jester’s quiet “Thanks” before he also remembered to add, “And, ah, remember, should you find the location of such a beacon, time is of the essence.” He was going to need that information if he was going to come up with a plan where they all won. They gave him a quiet nod of understanding. “Alright - goodbye.”

“Hey, Essek,” Jester called out, right as he was about to glide out of the labrary.

“Mhm,” Essek hummed.

“Could you put that chair back in the air?” she asked. “It’s just really cool up there.”

“Your friend Caleb is able to do that now,” Essek said, motioning towards Caleb. And besides, he didn’t have any more gold dust to do it even if he wanted to. “It is, uh, not inexpensive.”

“Oh, okay,” Jester nodded.

Although he could crush a few gold pieces for another spell. “Do you have 25 gold to pass along?”

She pats at her skirts, where he assumes she has her coin purse. “Well, I mean, yeah, but I don’t know if a chair in the air is worth that,” she frowns.

“That is exactly what I mean,” Essek smiles. “But if you can convince him,” Essek shrugs, moving out towards the front door again.

Caleb and Echo Essek follow along, with Essek opening the door with a small pull of dunamancy that sets the bells ringing again. Essek steps out, waiting outside the threshold as Caleb stands at the door shyly.

“You were right,” Caleb says after a few seconds.

“Right? About?” Essek asks.

The blush is back as Caleb averts his gaze. “You said that you hoped our next lesson would be exciting.” He looks up at Essek through his lashes, and if Essek had been standing on solid ground he’s sure his knees would have gone weak. As it was, he could feel a low swoop in his stomach as he took in the sight of Caleb like that - all soft eyes and shy smiles and eyes that drew him in like nothing else ever had. “It was very exciting,” Caleb finishes.

“Then lets hope our next lesson follows in the same path,” Essek smiles, giving Caleb a small bow. “Goodbye, Caleb Widogast.”

“ _ Auf wiedersehen _ , Essek Thelyss,” Caleb answers, his smile soft. “And goodbye to you as well, Echo Essek.”

Responding with a small wave the Echo falls into place beside Essek as they leave, and Essek chances a glance behind them. He can see Caleb watching them as they go, a thoughtfully warm expression on his face, and Essek knows that he must be wearing the same look as he travels through the Firmaments and back to his own abode.

**Author's Note:**

> So that was "A Touch of Magic".....or alternatively titled, Magical Edging: How Much Sexual Tension Can I Put Into This Scene Where All They Do Is Innocently Learn Magic?
> 
> yeah, there was a lot, and I didn't even realize it until afterwards, so, yeah, there's that - I deadass considered changing the rating on this because I was like this is like BORDERLINE, this is a THINLY VEILED metaphor, but in the end, nothing happened...right??
> 
> this also explains why Jester ships them now, so, y'know, do with that what you will
> 
> I really hope you guys liked this chapter!! I can't wait to come around with something new soon!!
> 
> And, is it Thursday yet?
> 
> This fic was inspired by:  
> A Tangled Web | Critical Role | Campaign 2, Episode 77 - 1:26:35 - 1:35:20, 1:59:33 - 2:08:25


End file.
